Your crawl space likely isn’t a part of your home that you use all that often. Perhaps you store a few bins of holiday decorations around the entrance to your crawl space, but most homeowners don’t use that area of their home for much else. But that doesn’t mean that you can ignore standing water—or, really, any significant moisture—in that part of your home. Keep reading to learn some of the possible consequences of having water in your crawl space and why you need to find water removal services in Kansas City right away.
Mold and Mildew
When there’s water or moisture anywhere in your home, you’re likely to find one constant companion: mold. Mold and mildew love damp, dark environments, making a flooded crawl space the perfect place for mold spores to take hold. While you might not think that mold in an unused area of your home is a big deal, you’d be wrong.
Mold releases spores into the air, and those spores can easily be sucked into your HVAC system, then circulated through your home. Mold spores are detrimental to your health, especially for those who already have allergies or respiratory issues like asthma. Even if you never open up your crawl space, those spores can still get into the air and impact your family’s overall health and wellbeing.
Water Wicking and Damage
Have you ever dipped a piece of paper into a puddle of water? Then you know that it’s not only the part touching the water that gets wet. Water can wick its way up through absorbent materials—including drywall—which can allow the water damage to spread. If your crawl space has only concrete walls, you likely won’t experience much wicking. But if there is drywall or wood, the moisture can wick upwards and damage other areas of your home, such as the baseboards of your main floor. It’s better to nip the problem in the bud than it is to allow the damage to spread.
Mites and Pests
Water is vital for life—your own, and the life of every type of pest you don’t want in your home. Many people make an effort to eliminate potential food sources for pests in their homes, but they don’t think about eliminating sources of moisture. If you have puddles of water in your home, these can be a perfect source of water for pests like termites, mice, rats, spiders, and even snakes.
Dust mites also love moist environments and can be an attractive food source for some of the pests mentioned above. If you’re providing an environment for dust mites to proliferate, you’re not only breeding your own allergen at home, but you’re providing those pests with food and water simultaneously.
While it’s normal for a crawl space to be slightly more humid than the rest of your home, there shouldn’t be noticeable moisture in the space. If you can feel moisture on the walls or you notice puddles on the floor, it’s important to dry out the space as soon as possible. You can try using a dehumidifier or sump pump, but if the problem persists, contact us for water damage cleanup in Kansas City.